Ancient Philosophy and Poetry: Good Cop, Bad Cop

Abstract

The author discusses Malcolm Heath’s book Ancient Philosophical Poetics, in which Heath attempts to present ancient Greek philosophical views on poetry to both an academic audience and non-specialists. Leading with the warning that the essay is not concerned with what literary theory looked like in ancient Greece, but rather how philosophy looked at poetry, Heath reveals the views of the philosophers on truth and goodness in poetry. Though most often these views relegate poetry to a lower status than philosophy (Heath’s focus is on the philosophy of Plato and the Platonists, with some consideration given to Aristotle), Ancient Philosophical Poetics demonstrates conclusively that, for example, the famous Platonic dictum that poets should be exiled form the ideal state is really a call to read their work with greater insight. The author of this essay presents and commends Heath’s book as an example of a highly contemporary approach to ancient philosophy and poetics, and simultaneously one refreshingly free of anachronism.